This invention relates to a passenger seat for a vehicle such as an aircraft and more particularly to a leg assembly for such a passenger seat, comprising a front foot, a leg frame mounted on the front foot and having spaced support surfaces for engaging with transverse members of the seat, a rear foot, and a load-limiting rear leg extending from the rear foot to an intermediate point on the leg frame so as to inhibit angular movement of the leg frame about the front foot.
Passenger seats in aircraft are commonly attached to the floor of the aircraft using attachment fittings that are mounted in longitudinal tracks in the floor of the aircraft. When such an aircraft is subject to sudden deceleration, for example during crash, the seats tend to pivot about their front attachment points, applying a considerable load to the tracks at their rear attachment points. Recently, it has been found that such rear attachment points are subject to a dynamic load which is substantially greater than was provided for during the design of many aircraft currently in service. Accordingly, seats of the type described above have been designed to reduce the maximum level of such dynamic load by providing a degree of shock absorption.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,492 describes a seat of this type in which the load-limiting.rear leg comprises a load-limiting strut extending from the rear foot to said intermediate point on the leg frame. This strut yields when subject to a load exceeding a predetermined value, allowing the seat to pivot forwardly about its front feet. When the strut has extended to its maximum length, it is subject to the full load between the leg frame and the rear foot. It is an object of the invention to avoid applying this load directly to the load-limiting strut.
According to the invention, in a leg assembly of the type described above, the rear leg comprises a first link pivotally connected at a first end to the rear foot, a second link pivotally connected at a first end to said intermediate point on the leg frame and a load-limiting strut pivotally connected at a first end to the front foot and pivotally connected at a second end to both the second end of the first link and the second end of the second link so as to resist movement of the first and second links into alignment with each other.